Turkey Delays Sale of Bosporus Bridges, Roads for Third Time

Turkey delayed the sale of 25-year
operating rights for toll roads and two bridges over the
Bosporus a third time amid a decline in the availability of
international finance.

The auction for the Bosporus and Fatih Sultan Mehmet
bridges and the eight toll roads was postponed to Oct. 31 from
Aug. 9, an official of the asset sales agency in Ankara said by
telephone today on the usual condition of anonymity. The assets
were first put on sale in August last year.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan won re-election last
year pledging to propel Turkey’s $772 billion economy to one of
the 10 largest in the world by 2023 with the help of at least
$20 billion of construction projects. Loans for Turkish
constructors this year tumbled by more than a third from the
same period of 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Banks in Turkey are unable to plug the financing gap for
the projects as European lenders pull back to strengthen balance
sheets threatened by the region’s debt crisis, Michael Davey,
head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in
Turkey, said in an interview on May 18.

Koc Holding AS (KCHOL), Turkey’s biggest group of companies,
Malaysia’s UEM Group Bhd, Autostrade per l’Italia SpA and Akfen
Holding AS (AKFEN) were among companies planning bids for the bridges
and 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) of highways, according to
stock exchange filings made in October and November last year.

Other projects facing possible delays include a canal
project announced by Erdogan before a general election in June
last year that will cost at least $12 billion and link the
Aegean Sea and Black Sea.

Astaldi SpA (AST) is also seeking finance for a $6.5 billion
motorway stretching from near Istanbul 421 kilometers (262
miles) south to the city of Izmir. A planned tunnel under the
Bosporus may cost as much as $1.4 billion, according to EBRD
estimates.

Astaldi also won a contract to build and operate a third
Bosporus bridge at a construction cost of about $2.5 billion,
Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said on May 29.